Question-and-answer session with Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford (part 1)

Here’s the first part of a group question-and-answer session with Kings goaltending coach Bill Ranford:

Question: How much of it is Ben Scrivens and Martin Jones and how much is it the defense?

Ranford: “I think it’s a combination of both. You need your goalie to make the big saves at the right time and you have to play solid defense. I think this group here, going back to the Terry Murray takes, has taken a lot of pride in their defense. That hasn’t changed.”

Q: Take me back to when you first saw Jones. Did you work with him much? What did you see in him?

Ranford: “I didn’t work with him at all. It was more on reputation and then I saw him a couple of times in Calgary when we’d go in there and he’d be practicing with the Hitmen. But it was more on his resume, winning at all levels. Just sort of a guy who had a real strong technical package and potential. We were in a situation where we had a hole to fill and we weren’t able to get anybody in the draft that year. We looked at him and invited him to camp.”

Q: Did that surprise you that he didn’t get drafted?

Ranford: “The biggest thing, and you hear it all the time with these goalies, where you have a guy ahead of him, who’s a veteran guy, they just don’t get the views. If your scouting staff doesn’t luck out and catch him enough times, it’s hard to draft a guy on limited viewings. I think that was our scenario. … His last two juniors, his numbers were impeccable, especially his last year. High ankle sprains are really tough for a goalie, and he had that and was still able to put up very good numbers.”

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